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Want to lose fat and gain muscle? You won’t find mainstream advice here. We dig into the scientifically proven truths and methods to look and feel your best, while improving your performance. From exercise methods to nutrition information, we got you covered.

There are countless diets out there, how are you supposed to know which one works best?

It seems like a new one comes out every week.

You’ve also heard it all. “I’ve lost 20lbs of fat with the Ketogenic Diet”.

“I’ve never been in better shape since I went low fat everything”.

“It doesn’t matter, you can eat WHATEVER YOU WANT WHENEVER YOU WANT WITH IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros)! I ate ice cream for dinner and I’m 6% body fat.”

“I’m doing this intermittent fasting thing, I haven’t eaten in like two days, I’ve lost so much weight it’s unreal”.

To make things even more confusing, the media and so called “experts” have thrown in these general rules to follow for any diet.

“Don’t eat after 7pm”.

“Stay away from sugar, it’s the devil”.

“Eat a bunch of small meals throughout the day”.

“Don’t eat eggs, there’s too much cholesterol”.

Some of these general rules may be applicable in specific situations, but they’re certainly not for everyone all the time.

There are even lists of “diets” that fall under each respective category. For example:

Here’s a quick list of diets that all fall under intermittent fasting: The 16/8 method, The eat-stop-eat method, The 5:2 diet,The warrior diet. They’re all just different ways to use intermittent fasting for fat loss.

The same can be said for low carb based diets: Paleo Diet, Whole30 Diet, Atkins Diet.

Now before we get into the goods of which diet works best, I want you to know that we’re not going to review and of the stupid diets.

It’s a waste of our time writing and a waste of your time reading. You know which ones we’re talking about: the liquid diets, the potato diet, the cabbage soup diets, HOW MANY FUCKIN DAYS IN A ROW CAN YOU POSSIBLY ONLY EAT SOUP!? How can that even be good for you?! We also don’t go over anything that forces you to buy their supplements along with a diet in order to achieve miracle weight loss - AHEM - #pyramidschemes.

We’re gonna make it reeeaaaalll easy to follow.

New research that JUST came out this past summer sheds light on this seemingly endless diet search. This isn’t any b.s. Research sponsored by the milk or soy industry, this is a REALLY well done meta-analysis of major diets. They compared Low Carb, Low Fat and everything in between to see which one has provided the best results.

Let’s give you a quick example: A 2000cal/day diet containing 33% Protein, 33% Carbs and 33% Fat will likely have the same effect on body composition as a 2000cal/day diet containing 33% Protein, 57% Carbs and 10% Fat.

If you’re wondering why protein has anything to do with it:

It has to do with protein’s superior ability to increase the thermic effect of the metabolism while it’s being digested. It also has to do with the fact that increasing protein consumption (roughly 1-2g of protein per kg of your bodyweight) can help you build and repair muscle. This action of building muscle, and simply having more muscle in the body significantly raises your body’s metabolism so you’re burning more energy at rest.

There were some instances where the dietary protein was low, and there was a negative difference in results between compared to higher protein diets.

Now keep in mind that this is all about body composition. After all, we’re talking about fat loss here. There may be some circumstances where one diet is better than another for some specific health benefits or disease prevention, but when we’re talking straight fat loss and body comp, those are the results!

At the end of the day, the best diet is the one that you can follow. Pick something with a moderate to high protein intake (aim for 1-2grams of protein per kg of bodyweight).

If you wanna learn more about diet and nutrition follow our instagram: @clearcutfitness